Dry matter and nutrient degradability of foodstuffs after incubation in the rumen (nylon bag technique)

Abstract

The digestion of dry matter and nutrients of wheat/barley, maize, potatoes, dried sugar beet chips dried sugar beet pulp and barley straw were studied by means of the nylon bag method on two steers with fistulated rumens. Compared with that of the other feedstuffs with a high starch content, the disappearance of maize was significantly lower in terms of dry matter (20%), starch (38%) and crude protein (23%). In the case of cereals, dry matter degradability correlated closely with the disappearance of crude protein and starch (r = 0.9), and for straw and dried sugar beet pulp it correlated closely with crude cellulose disappearance (r = 0.9). The high degree of crude cellulose of dried sugar beet pulp is due mainly to the low lignin content of the dried sugar beet pulp.